CRISFIELD'S #3
Davis W. Morton / 1990 / oil on canvas / 30 x 40 inches

    Mrs. Landis stood behind this counter for almost 50 years. With her blunt country manner from the Eastern Shore she made Crisfield feel like a seafood restaurant where fishermen would go. Like the best kept secret of Silver Spring, that everyone knew, the Landis family made Crisfield Restaurant wildly successful.
     The second generation did what that generation does. They bought boats and cabins and all the things they’d wished for when they were children. They made sure their children never went without. Then those children did what they do, mystifying everyone with ingratitude.
     Mrs. Landis was always in the restaurant, so I wondered if she just used her money to buy expensive dresses. But with fashions old people like, that’s often hard to tell. When her cataracts took over she would sit in a chair beside the counter and pretend to watch the new cashier. Looking like she had business there, Mrs. Landis would often walk behind the counter and gently touch it as if she was touching a child’s hair. Then one day her chair was gone.

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©2006
Comments and Original Art by Davis W. Morton (#114)